Proposed Solution to Colorado Healing Fund Controversy called Centralized Victims Fund
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Concerns involving one well-known Colorado nonprofit are now coming to light after many are generously donating to help families and victims of the Club Q shooting.
In a press conference called Sunday, mass shooting victims from across the country shared concerns, saying the Colorado Healing Fund does not give 100% of donations to victims. They want donations to be sent somewhere else. Their solution is to create something called a centralized victims fund.
"We're walking in with a fresh mind giving you a fresh model of what works with the victims in each and every mass shooting that we have affiliated ourselves with to make sure victims get 100% of what is raised. "Money can't replace a life," mass shooting survivor Tiara Parker said. "But the money can help give the restart that all victims need when it's all said and done. It is one of the hardest things to get up, keep pushing, not sure if you're gonna have a job the next morning because you're too scared to go outside."
Many nonprofits take money for overhead costs. But, the victims that spoke on Sunday say that the Colorado Healing Fund takes the money it collects and shuffles it out to other nonprofits to disburse. Then charges a 10% fee for administrative costs.
"The governor can start a centralized fund himself and can have the Colorado Healing Fund give 100% of what they've collected, give back that 10%, and put it in a centralized fund where 100% will go to victims," Dr. Zachary Blair said who worked behind the scenes in eleven mass shootings.
Victims say in this model, there needs to be an independent executor or administrator involved followed by an independent audit.
"The process has to be clear," Orlando Mental Health First Responder Maria Buckley said. "You have to show every penny that comes in and you have to show how it was distributed."
The centralized fund would be volunteer-based, consisting of a pro-bono attorney and a local steering committee.
"Potentially someone from the club, maybe the owner would like to be in the steering committee who decides," Buckley said. "His business is gone, his employees are without work, maybe he would like to be one. That's an example of how the community can choose their own steering committee to then manage the funds that are collected."
These victims want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to the Club Q victims that happened to the victims of the Boulder shooting, the Columbine shooting, and the Aurora Theatre shooting.
"Colorado is the only state with a nonprofit like this," Blair said. "The admin fees and the cost that comes out should not come from the victim's donations. There are other means to raise the funds."
The Colorado Healing Fund is different from the Colorado State Victim Compensation Fund, which all victims of the shooting are eligible to apply for now. This is state money that comes from the federal government.
"There's nothing wrong with administration fees," Marcus Grimmie said, who lost family in the Thousand Oaks mass shooting. "But when millions are made, 10% of millions is not what that requires. Nonprofits deserve to be paid for their work, but not millions."
These mass shooting victims are asking people to stop donating to the Colorado Healing Fund until a centralized victims fund is established.
"They have to do it while people are still planning funerals, while people are in hospitals," Blair said. "Everyone on the outside are the eyes and ears, they're the voices until people have the strength to speak up on their own."
